Picture this: You're in a supermarket, standing in front of the beverage section looking at a new coffee brand. You've never seen it before, and you're not a die-hard fan of any other brand, but you don't want to buy it without finding out more about it. Now, traditionally, you'd pick up the smallest pack or a sachet, or wait to hear from someone else who bought it.

But Google's Goggles will change that. Hold your phone up to the pack, click a picture, and Goggles will do a search for you, bringing up reviews, competitors and the history of the brand---everything that a regular Google search would offer, and more.

Google Goggles is the latest cool tool helping manufacturers with its real-world functionality. The technology isn't new, but Google's most recent update allows for a slew of visual searches, including text, labels, barcodes, logos, and even entire print ads. With the possibility of advertisers creating print ads to best reflect the brand in ‘goggle' searches, users will be able to access not just the brand, but the manufacturer's entire repertoire through a single print ad.

Facebook's new tools for advertisers, however, functions under the assumption that the world consists of Facebook---a fair assumption, considering Facebook's 500-million-strong (and counting) userbase. Facebook's new tools make use of likes, check-ins, user actions on Facebook applications, and posts on pages.

Once a user ‘likes' a brand or checks in from a brand's location, the brand can post that user's action in a "Sponsored Story" on their friends' pages. If the user uses a brand's application on its Facebook page, or posts to its wall, Facebook will relay that information to the users' friends. These tools add a personalised touch to branding and advertising on the social networking sites.

Facebook saw a massive income from advertising last year, bringing in USD 1.86 billion last year. Business information service eMarketer reports that projections indicate a doubling of Facebook's advertising revenues in 2011.